1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electric switches and more particularly to the construction of the switch and the conductive elements used in the switch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the prior art to provide electric switches in circuits to selectively conduct or not conduct electricity as desired throughout the circuit. An exemplary switch known by those skilled in the prior art has an insulating carrier containing a number of electrical contacts. Each contact is, in turn, connected to an external terminal connector which provides a means to interconnect each contact to the wires of the electric circuit. In many switches the contacts engage a rotor which is rotated to conductively interconnect the various contacts to permit electricity to flow from one or more terminal connectors to one or more of the other terminal connectors to provide the desired switching effect. Typically the rotor is rotated by a knob or the like to indicate the position of the rotor and the interconnection of contacts. To maintain the engagement between the contacts and the rotor, the contacts have been fashioned from flexible conductive materials. The flexibility of the conductive material permits each contact to be biased against the rotor to maintain the conductive engagement therebetween.
One known method for fashioning the contacts and terminal connectors is by stamping the contact-terminal connector pattern for the switch from a sheet of conductive material. As stated above, the material is selected to give the contacts the desired biasing flexibility or "spring action" so that the contacts will properly bias against the rotor. After the pattern has been stamped from the sheet, the sheet is insert molded into a non-conductive carrier, the carrier ultimately forming a part of the switch.
One of the drawbacks of the aforementioned switches is that the conductive material selected to give the desired flexibility and spring action to the contacts is not strong or rigid enough for the terminal connector to connect the switch to the circuit. Accordingly, the terminal connector of switches such as described above, tend to break, rendering the switch useless.